


intimate

by neoneco



Series: perturbation [3]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-09
Updated: 2017-03-09
Packaged: 2018-10-01 12:17:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10189736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neoneco/pseuds/neoneco
Summary: Eobard Thawne has always felt this... connection. The Flash stands before him, too close for comfort, but unreachable all the same.





	

**Author's Note:**

> where does this take place in canon? we just don't know. I straight up just wanted them to talk more in the finale that's all.

"Why Harrison Wells?" 

He's sitting in a specially outfitted speedster proofed cell, hands clasped over his knees. Barry Allen stands just outside the glass, hands forcibly relaxed at his sides. He's trying to sound casual.

He wants something -  that much is obvious. Maybe he wants a confession for his father. Maybe he wants reassurance. 

Despite being the only one standing, Barry holds none of the power. And even better, they both know it. 

He slides his eyes up to meet Barry's. He smiles. He keeps his mouth firmly shut. 

"You took his face. _His_ face, specifically. Why?"

Eobard hesitates for a moment before responding. What will hurt the Flash the most? 

He settles on some kind of truth. 

"In the original timeline," he says, "Harrison Wells was the man who founded S.T.A.R. Labs and developed a particle accelerator. It blew up, as mine did, and created the meta-humans. In 2020."

"But it exploded in 2014."

"No," Eobard says, gently correcting him. " _My_ particle accelerator exploded in 2014. I spent fourteen years tirelessly working towards it, towards building up the reputation of S.T.A.R. Labs and getting the grant money and arranging the construction. Even at my fastest, I had to wait fourteen years for my plans to come to fruition."

Barry comes to a conclusion that he didn't want to come to and he visibly struggles to remain calm. His body is tense and leaned back, just slightly, like he's doing everything in his power to get away from Eobard despite not taking a physical step. 

Eobard remembers when such a sight would have made him sneer. What a brave little hero, forcing himself to converse with a monster. 

He wants to sneer. He really wants to. He wants the Flash to see him, ready to tear him apart using only his teeth. He wants to watch the last of the trust the Flash once had for Harrison Wells die an undignified death. He wants to see the last ounce of hope Barry may have for him, a man he loved, leeched out with the truth of Eobard Thawne. 

Instead, he finds himself smiling, almost indulgently. The year they'd spent together, defeating the bad guys, bumping shoulders, saving the day - it's predisposed him to smiling at Barry Allen. 

"You didn't have to kill him," the Flash says to him, scowling. "If you were just going to start from the ground up, you could've just been S.T.A.R. Labs' competition. There was no point to taking Wells' identity."

He could tell Barry why he did what he did. That murder was easiest possible choice for him to make, that he was angry and wanted to kill someone, anyone, that he just plainly didn't want to go to the trouble of making an identity for himself when he could take one instead. Or that, really, it was another way to hurt him, to snatch a possible mentor away from him before there was even an opportunity for the relationship to form. But, again, he's feeling indulgent. He's feeling _cruel_. He tells a version of the truth instead. 

"No," he acknowledges. "I didn't have to kill him. And I suppose there's a part of me that can regret that." 

Barry scoffs. 

"Regret won't undo what you did. It won't bring Harrison Wells back to life."

Eobard laughs the laugh he used when he was playing at being Harrison Wells and confined to a wheelchair. Self-deprecating and humbled - the laugh of a man who has learned a lesson at a great price. 

"Yes, I know. But I didn't second guess myself like this until I met you, Barry Allen."

Barry's name is drawn out, slowly, sensually. Eobard remembers the moment he learned the Flash's name - remembers how he repeated it, over and over, just to hear it again. 

Barry's face closes off, like shutters slamming over windows. His nose flares. 

"Don't do that," he says, sharply. Eobard raises a simple eyebrow. 

"Don't do what?"

"Don't fake intimacy. You never - you didn't - _care_ for me. Not like how I cared for you." He pauses, then corrects himself. "How _we_ cared for you."

Eobard smiles at the word choice.

"Oh, Barry, " he says quietly, reverently. He takes a moment to remember how those lips felt, pressed against his. "I've never had to fake intimacy with _you_."

**Author's Note:**

> sorry that my summaries make no sense and are vague lol. I'm trying
> 
> again, thank you for the support!


End file.
